The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[saunders_heroes]

So even if he doesn't sell this summer he won't be our chairman next season.

[pauliewalnuts]

Sounds a bit confusing.

Oh well. We'll see.

[pauliewalnuts]

http://twitter.com/HeartOfTheHolte/status/603313003476426754/photo/1

[Toronto Villa]

So even if he doesn't sell this summer he won't be our chairman next season.

Is he our chairman now? And I don't mean that disrespectfully. I mean isn't he more benefactor now than chairman in the traditional sense? What does a football chairman even do nowadays anyway? Surely that role is completely different to what it was 20 years ago.

[pauliewalnuts]

So even if he doesn't sell this summer he won't be our chairman next season.

Is he our chairman now? And I don't mean that disrespectfully. I mean isn't he more benefactor now than chairman in the traditional sense? What does a football chairman even do nowadays anyway? Surely that role is completely different to what it was 20 years ago.

I'm sure it is a pretty important role, with plenty to do.

[Toronto Villa]

So even if he doesn't sell this summer he won't be our chairman next season.

Is he our chairman now? And I don't mean that disrespectfully. I mean isn't he more benefactor now than chairman in the traditional sense? What does a football chairman even do nowadays anyway? Surely that role is completely different to what it was 20 years ago.

I'm sure it is a pretty important role, with plenty to do.

I don't mean it like that. I mean compared to what the role was and is now, with so many other people at clubs, especially at the very top level. We have essentially operated without a day to day chairman. Has it been imperative for him to be at at the club every day like Doug was?

[pauliewalnuts]

We've operated without one, yes, and also managed to put together a five year run of utter failure. I'm not suggesting that is purely because of our not-bothered-any-more chairman, but just as I though a clued up CEO was a good idea when we finally got one, someone who can devote the time to being chairman might not be such a bad idea.

I'm sure Lerner wouldn't be talking about getting one if he didn't think it was needed.

He is clearly scaling back his involvement to owner. If that's what he wants to do, I'd much rather he filled the position if he thought that was necessary.

[dave.woodhall]

We've operated without one, yes, and also managed to put together a five year run of utter failure. I'm not suggesting that is purely because of our not-bothered-any-more chairman, but just as I though a clued up CEO was a good idea when we finally got one, someone who can devote the time to being chairman might not be such a bad idea.

I'm sure Lerner wouldn't be talking about getting one if he didn't think it was needed.

He is clearly scaling back his involvement to owner. If that's what he wants to do, I'd much rather he filled the position if he thought that was necessary.

You can't really have a hands-on chair AND a CEO.

[edgysatsuma89]

We've operated without one, yes, and also managed to put together a five year run of utter failure. I'm not suggesting that is purely because of our not-bothered-any-more chairman, but just as I though a clued up CEO was a good idea when we finally got one, someone who can devote the time to being chairman might not be such a bad idea.

I'm sure Lerner wouldn't be talking about getting one if he didn't think it was needed.

He is clearly scaling back his involvement to owner. If that's what he wants to do, I'd much rather he filled the position if he thought that was necessary.

You can't really have a hands-on chair AND a CEO.

I agree but then what's the point in getting a new chair? I haven't read the article though, just going by comments.

[David_Nab]

So would Fox then, I presume be handed full control with Randy stepping down.

[pauliewalnuts]

We've operated without one, yes, and also managed to put together a five year run of utter failure. I'm not suggesting that is purely because of our not-bothered-any-more chairman, but just as I though a clued up CEO was a good idea when we finally got one, someone who can devote the time to being chairman might not be such a bad idea.

I'm sure Lerner wouldn't be talking about getting one if he didn't think it was needed.

He is clearly scaling back his involvement to owner. If that's what he wants to do, I'd much rather he filled the position if he thought that was necessary.

You can't really have a hands-on chair AND a CEO.

You'd better tell Randy that, then, as that is what he wants.

[pauliewalnuts]

‘We weren’t relegated but I didn’t get it right’


Randy Lerner was on holiday in Barbados a few months ago when he felt a tap on the shoulder, turned around and found himself facing Martin O’Neill. The last time they had spent any hours together was with teams of expensive lawyers in a bitter, scarring employment tribunal, but, over a couple of days in the Caribbean, they sat by the pool and in the bar reminiscing, remembering the good times.

They talked fondly about when Villa finished sixth in the table three years running, knocking on the door of that elite Champions League club, happy days with Ashley Young, James Milner, Stewart Downing flying down the wings, before disagreements over spending and direction and control in 2010.

Lerner may yet have an unexpectedly joyous conclusion to his regime if Villa win their first trophy in almost 20 years on Saturday, but that chance encounter only emphasised how much it had gone sour, for Lerner, for Villa, since that acrimonious parting.

Things did not work out as intended in so many ways. Lerner had planned to move to England, owning properties in London and the Midlands, but family life and business kept him in the United States. As he became more distant, Villa lurched from Gérard Houllier (one season before heart trouble) to Alex McLeish (one season of fan antipathy) to Paul Lambert (two and a half moribund campaigns including an ill-judged double act with the brooding Roy Keane).
Instead of knocking on the door of the elite, Villa have spent the past couple of seasons perilously close to the trapdoor of relegation. An American billionaire with the Villa tattoo and good intentions has ended up battered by fans who once saw him as a welcome replacement to “Deadly” Doug Ellis.

“However much I know that being a football chairman carries with it brutal criticism, my love for Villa makes the negativity pretty biting at times,” Lerner said this week in a rare interview.
“On the other hand, the club’s performance over the last five or so years has left quite a lot to be desired and that falls squarely on my shoulders. Happily we’ve not been relegated, but I haven’t gotten it nearly right enough. So what reaction would I expect?”

Lerner, 53, holds his hands up about his mistakes, and especially the difficulty of trying to be an executive chairman while juggling all aspects of a busy life. Villa needed direction. “The responsibilities that I have at home, in the US, both personal and professional come first,” he says, candidly. “If I lived and worked in England, it would be entirely different matter.”

He still runs numerous businesses passed down by his father, who died 13 years ago, and was effectively a single parent for nine years. A few years ago he decided to cut down his commitments including sports ownership, selling the Cleveland Browns and pulling out of Villa for several reasons.

“Why? I’m a believer in flux. In change,” he says. “Some of my career goals have shifted. My appetite for the media exposure has certainly waned and just simply my feeling that I’m not the right guy any more for the job.”
Absenteeism is one criticism levelled at him by Villa fans, but he decided not to show up at games purely for the sake of it. “I knew that the answer was not to pander to the criticism, but rather to fix or address the issue,” he says from his home in Long Island.

He recruited Tom Fox from Arsenal to be chief executive and began to hand over responsibilities, including the managerial search that led to the galvanising appointment of Tim Sherwood in February.
“That was driven by Tom,” he says. “When Tom came to Villa last summer, we had an explicit understanding that he was going to run the club day to day. With respect to making a change as manager, he had detailed criteria that addressed the short and long term. Given those, he felt that Tim was uniquely suited and available.”
It has been a long time — O’Neill’s days — since Villa have punched close to their wage bill and Lerner admits envy for the work at Southampton and Swansea City, in particular. He hopes that Sherwood can bring significant improvements to scouting and recruitment. “Tim and I have had three or four good visits since he’s come,” he says. “He’s become Villa very quickly.”

Lerner is hopeful that the new combination of Sherwood and Fox, a positive end to the season and the guarantee of TV riches to come make it more likely that a buyer will be found this summer than last.
But what of the restraints of Financial Fair Play that could mean Villa, even if they did get everything right as a business, could once again hit that glass ceiling that they reached under O’Neill? Is there not a futility for a club outside the top four?

“That’s a tough one,” Lerner says. “I recently met a cardiologist in America who was from Dublin originally, who had been a Chelsea fan until, he said, they started buying players in the current fashion and at their current levels. My point is that it can cut both ways.

“Sure, facing clubs with vastly larger payrolls can be dispiriting, but, there are always other angles. The big clubs also provide important liquidity for smaller clubs. For clubs like Southampton and Swansea, their ability to sell players at premium prices wisely has been, to my mind, a key part of their ascent and their increasingly established position in the top half.

“My view is that a compelling sort of football ecosystem has evolved in the English league that not only benefits those clubs that are extremely well run with effective academies, but has also become the place of stunning competitive rivalries and unforeseen achievements.”

Villa’s run to the FA Cup final could certainly be included as unexpected. It gives Lerner a chance to say an upbeat farewell after nine years if Villa can win the competition for the first time since 1957, their first trophy since the League Cup in 1996. He will be in the stands with family at Wembley. He has promised to step down as chairman even if he cannot sell Villa this summer, and English football will say goodbye to one of the more eclectic characters.
Talking of Villa attracting global interest, Lerner says it is “kind of like a Boetti Mappa”, citing the work of the Italian conceptual artist.

Among his future intentions is to write a book, saying that his inspirations include Geoffrey Barraclough and Llewellyn Woodward, the late British historians. “So something straightforward and simple,” he laughs.
He wants more time for other projects and says it is not that he has stopped wanting the best for Villa, but simply about priorities. The big mistake was not bringing in someone earlier to fill his role when he realised that he could not devote the attention.
The fans will have their own deep frustrations, but Lerner has no regrets about becoming involved nine years ago even if, when he sells, he will have lost some of his considerable fortune.
He would do it again, but bumping into O’Neill heightened his own sense of “what ifs” and hopes that were never fulfilled. Soon it will be someone else’s turn.
Hiring and firing
Since buying Aston Villa for £62.6 million in September 2006, Randy Lerner has hired five full-time managers
Martin O’Neill August 2006-August 2010
2006-07 finished 11th; 2007-08 6th; 2008-09 6th; 2009-10 6th
The Northern Irishman and Lerner lift the team after David O’Leary’s dismal spell. They reach the 2010 League Cup final, losing to Manchester United, and fall short of Champions League qualification. O’Neill quits five days before the start of the 2010-11 season
Gérard Houllier (September 2010-April 2011)
2010-11 9th
The Frenchman, who bought Darren Bent from Sunderland for £18 million, never looks a long-term appointment and cedes charge to Gary McAllister, his assistant, from April 2011, over ill health
Alex McLeish (June 2011-May 2012)
2011-12 16th
Villa finish two points clear of the relegation zone in his one season before the deeply unpopular former Birmingham City manager is sacked
Paul Lambert June 2012-February 2015)
2012-13 15th; 2013-14 15th
The Scot is unable to arrest the slide despite the form of Christian Benteke. Many managers would not have survived a two-leg League Cup semi-final defeat by Bradford City, of Sky Bet League Two, in his second season. Sacked after a terrible run of results
Tim Sherwood (February 2015-present)
2014-15 17th
The former Tottenham Hotspur head coach achieves Premier League safety with a game to spare and reaches the FA Cup final after semi-final success against Liverpool
Words by Nathan Jones

[berneboy]

Randy Lerner will step down as Aston Villa chairman this summer even if he retains ownership of the club. The American still hopes to sell Villa but has already made moves to put a new board in place if no takeover is completed.
In a rare interview, Lerner told The Times, that he accepts he should have stepped aside several years ago because of work and family commitments in the United States. He has come under fire from supporters as the team has battled relegation in recent seasons. “I don’t disagree with the criticism,” he said. “And what I should have done several years back was bring in a chairman.”
He insists that he has already taken steps to help to revive the midlands club, who hope to win their first trophy in almost 20 years by beating Arsenal in the FA Cup final on Saturday.
Victory would provide an upbeat end to another difficult season, as well as a place in the Europa League, and Lerner believes that the retention of top-flight status could accelerate the sale of the club he bought from Doug Ellis in 2006.
Talks are continuing with several parties, including groups backed from China and the United States, although reports that a consortium — led by Paul Smith, the former Chelsea chief executive, and Tony Adams — is close to completing a deal are understood to be wide of the mark. “Yes, the club remains for sale,” Lerner said. “But as we’ve seen, ‘Club for sale’ doesn’t necessarily mean it will change hands so fast.”
Lerner could have sold Villa last year but was not happy with the way that the deal was progressing so pulled out of negotiations. He insists that he will not sell unless he is happy with both the offer — saying that recent sales in the Premier League “suggest somewhere in the £150 million to £200 million [region] is the likely range” — and the commitments of the new owners.
“I have had interest from nearly every corner of the globe,” he said. “Germans, Italians, Americans and Chinese among others have expressed interest in and fondness for the Villa. The key of course is to try to put the club in custodial hands that can take the club forward - resources and competence and a willingness to immerse themselves in the local fabric.”
Lerner says that if no party can complete a swift takeover, and he may set a time limit to ensure readiness for next season, he will stay on as owner but will appoint a new chairman. There could also be other additions to the board.
“Last year at this time I had a plan A, which was to sell, and a plan B, which was to rethink the club’s business management, which led to the hiring of Tom Fox [as chief executive],” Lerner said. “This year plan A remains to find a buyer if on the cards or, plan B, find a new chairman

[pauliewalnuts]

Totally like a Boetti Mappa.

[richl]

Totally like a Boetti Mappa.

Totally ?? Wtf